iCloud Burst: Preparing for El Nino of Exploits

Wired Magazine first broke the news last week of a hole in two-step verification system in Apple’s iCloud service that allowed hackers to obtain private celebrity photos. In a broader perspective, this demonstrated iCloud and other cloud storage services could be raining down your personal photos and stored information. Vladimir Katalova of Russia originally sold his ElcomSoft forensic backdoor program to law enforcement, but it is now in the hands of criminals, and is being used to download iCloud and other cloud-stored data.

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that “When I step back from this terrible scenario that happened and say what more could we have done, I think about the awareness piece. I think we have a responsibility to ratchet that up. That’s not really an engineering thing.”

The plan is to send out notifications when an attempt to change your password is made and when another device is trying to gain access to your storage. But notifying users after the fact doesn’t mean we are any safer from determined hackers.

Sometimes Apple users are complacent about security due to the fact that malware and botnets tend to target open source platforms like Windows and Google more so than Apple’s proprietary OS. This leads to a false sense of security, as new variants of backdoor malware have crossed over to Mac operating systems.

According to Hacker News, “The malicious program used by the [Russian hacking group GREF] has the ability to open a reverse shell, list and transfer files and install additional malware on the computer it infects. The Mac version of backdoor can also log keystrokes as well as capture screenshots.” This type of malware has been morphing since 2009 and was transmitted to Mac OSX from a backdoor in Windows.

High net worth targets use Apple products, hence the shift. Apple products account for 52% of newly purchased products for enterprise, and 41% of upper and executive level employees are Apple users. Criminals and nation states are specifically targeting these individuals in order to lucratively sell and use their personal information and data.